Violently Happy

Björk followed her art-pop muse into uncharted territory. now she’s ready to party

No one has ever accused Björk of being mainstream, but in the last few years even some of her most ardent fans have had occasion to scratch their heads and wonder just how far out into the glacier fields the Icelandic singer might wander.

After reeling off three hugely influential and successful solo albums in the mid-’90s, the singer who once filled dance floors with dozens of pounding remixes turned decidedly inward.

She became a mother for the second time (her daughter, Isadora, is 4, and she also has a 20-yearold son, Sindri, from a previous relationship). Then she released a string of ever more experimental records, including 2004’s Medúlla, created entirely from vocal samples, and last year’s Drawing Restraint 9, the soundtrack to her life partner Matthew Barney’s art film about turning into a Japanese whale.

Now, the 41-year-old infamous for wearing a swan dress to the Oscars is ready for a change, and she’s letting fans know right there in the title of her new album Volta, which arrives in stores Tuesday. For those who never bothered to get their master’s in English, a volta is the line in a sonnet signaling a shift in tone or mood.
« I thought about calling the album Voodoo or Voltage, but both words felt too cliché », Björk says. « I liked the sound of Volta best. It just sounds like energy. The last couple of [albums], I enjoyed them very much. But they had a different emotion than this one », Björk says. « I had gotten a bit of cabin fever and need to get out and have fun. »

And fun the new album is, mostly due to beats provided by collaborator Timbaland, the superstar producer behind acts including Justin Timberlake and Missy Elliott. The pair hooked up after Timbaland sent her fan mail raving about Venus as a Boy. Later, he wound up sampling her song Joga on a video-edit of Elliott’s Hit ’Em Wit’ Da Hee.